mass-communication-theory
mass-communication-theory
mass-communication-theory
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344 Section 4 Contemporary Mass Communication Theory<br />
message system<br />
analysis<br />
In cultivation<br />
analysis, detailed<br />
content analyses<br />
of television programming<br />
to assess<br />
recurring and<br />
consistent presentations<br />
of images,<br />
themes, values,<br />
and portrayals<br />
cultivation<br />
In cultivation<br />
analysis, television’scontribution<br />
to the<br />
creation of a culture’s<br />
frameworks<br />
or knowledge and<br />
underlying general<br />
concepts<br />
mainstreaming<br />
In cultivation<br />
analysis, the process,<br />
especially for<br />
heavier viewers,<br />
by which television’s<br />
symbols<br />
monopolize and<br />
dominate other<br />
sources of information<br />
and ideas<br />
about the world<br />
message system analysis, detailed content analyses of television programming to assess<br />
its most recurring and consistent presentations of images, themes, values, and<br />
portrayals. The second step is the formulation of questions about viewers’ social realities.<br />
Remember the earlier questions about crime? Those were drawn from a cultivation<br />
study. The third step is to survey the audience, posing the questions from<br />
step two to its members and asking them about their amount of television consumption.<br />
Finally, step four entails comparing the social realities of light and heavy<br />
viewers. The product, as described by Michael Morgan and Nancy Signorielli,<br />
should not be surprising: “The questions posed to respondents do not mention television,<br />
and the respondents’ awareness of the source of their information is seen as<br />
irrelevant. The resulting relationships … between amount of viewing and the tendency<br />
to respond to these questions in the terms of the dominant and repetitive<br />
facts, values, and ideologies of the world of television … illuminate television’s contribution<br />
to viewers’ conceptions of social reality” (2003, p. 99).<br />
What is television’s contribution? Cultivation theorists argue that its major<br />
contribution is cultivation, a cultural process relating “to coherent frameworks or<br />
knowledge and to underlying general concepts … cultivated by exposure to the total<br />
and organically related world of television rather than exposure to individual<br />
programs and selections” (Gerbner, 1990, p. 255).<br />
This cultivation occurs in two ways. The first is mainstreaming, where, especially<br />
for heavier viewers, television’s symbols monopolize and dominate other<br />
sources of information and ideas about the world. People’s internalized social realities<br />
eventually move toward the mainstream, not a mainstream in any political<br />
sense, but a culturally dominant reality more closely aligned with television’s reality<br />
than with any objective reality. Is the criminal justice system failing us? It is if we<br />
think it is.<br />
The second way cultivation manifests itself is through resonance, when viewers<br />
see things on television that are most congruent with their own everyday realities.<br />
In essence, these people get a “double dose” of cultivation because what they see<br />
on the screen resonates with their actual lives. Some city dwellers, for example,<br />
might see the violent world of television resonated in their deteriorating<br />
neighborhoods.<br />
THE MEAN WORLD INDEX<br />
Referring specifically to mainstreaming and resonance, cultivation pioneer Michael<br />
resonance<br />
In cultivation<br />
analysis, when<br />
viewers see things<br />
on television that<br />
are congruent<br />
with their own<br />
everyday realities<br />
Morgan and his colleagues wrote, “But cultivation analysis is not limited to cases<br />
when television ‘facts’ vary from real-world … statistics. The repetitive ‘lessons’ we<br />
learn from television, beginning with infancy, can become the basis for a broader<br />
world view, making television a significant source of general values, ideologies, and<br />
perspectives as well as specific beliefs. Some of the most interesting and important<br />
issues for cultivation analysis involve the symbolic transformation of message system<br />
data into more general issues and assumptions” (Morgan, Shanahan, and Signorielli,<br />
2009, p. 39). As an example, cultivation researchers present the Mean World Index,a<br />
series of three questions:<br />
1. Do you believe that most people are just looking out for themselves?<br />
2. Do you think that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?<br />
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